<http://www.news.faithfreedom.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1
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Saudi Prince Al Faisal admits: Our curriculum produces terrorists
By ibn Misr
Alarabiya (Saudi owned TV channel)
January 24, 2008
Translated from Arabic.
Saudi Prince Mohammad Al Abdallah Al Faisal called today, in an
interview with Turki El Dakheil, famous host for the popular Saudi
Arabian (Arabiya channel) TV talk show Eda¹at (Enlightment), for
³changing the education philosophy in Saudi Arabia². Adding ³our
curriculum produces terrorists².
Prince Al Faisal was the deputy Minister for education until he
resigned in 1983.
³Education in Saudi Arabia suffers from a big problem. One day I went
to the Minister of education Hassan El Sheikh, and told him, ŒThe
religious books we teach are the books of Sheikh Mohamed Ben Abdel
Wahab (the founder of - Wahabism) and we should change their
interpretations and understanding for the student ² he told Al Dakheil.
He continued, ³I am not happy with the level and results of education
in the Kingdom, and I personally sent my children after their middle
school to study abroad .. Since we realized from experience that our
curriculums produced terrorists who went and blew themselves up .. we
have to find out how to get our students out of that path².
Comment:
There is a widespread misconception in the minds of the Western public
at large, that Wahabism is a Saudi invention of a new radicalized
interpretation of Islam by Mohamed Ben Abdel Wahab in the 18th century.
This misconception was popularized by two groups of Western scholars.
The first group acted out of good faith but based their conclusion on
unsubstantiated differences between the Wahabi Islam and the
fundamental Islamic texts. The second group acted out of deception and
diversion. To absolve mainstream Islam from any link with radical
Muslim terrorists, and to divert people scrutiny away from Islam to the
scapegoat of Wahabi Islam.
So why is Wahabi Islam perceived as the most radicalized Islam? And
where is the truth in this popularized confusion?
We¹ll explain this in very simple terms based on Islamic history and
sources.
After the 3rd Caliphe Osman ebn Af¹fan, Islam was spread in many
countries due to the Islamic invasions and conquests. Through the
years, two factors contributed, if we may say, in replacing the
barbarity of the Shari¹a laws with civil laws. The 1st factor was the
interaction of Islam with the civilizations and cultures that Islam
conquered mainly Christians, and the natives that were forced to
convert to Islam resisted the application of these barbaric laws as
well. The second factor was the colonization of most of what used to be
the Islamic countries of the defunct Ottoman Empire, except Saudi
Arabia that held no interest for Western European powers at the time.
We can consider the era of colonization, starting with Napoleon's
expedition to be an era of a de facto moderate Islam in the major
countries of the Middle-East like Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, the
Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), etcŠ that adopted to a great
degree a modernized lifestyle and democratic legislative institutions
inherited from the colonizing power.
Wahabism is a conservative 18th century reform movement of Sunni Islam
founded by Muhamed ben Abd-al-Wahhab, after whom the movement is named.
Wahhabism formed the creed upon which the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was
founded and is the dominant form of Islam found in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
and Qatar, as well as some pockets of Somalia, Algeria and Mauritania
Wahhabi theology treats the Kuran and Hadith as fundamental texts,
interpreted upon the understanding of the first three generations of
Islam and further explained by many various commentaries and the works
of the earlier scholar Ibn Taymiyya, who sought the return of Islam to
its sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
Ibn Taymiyyah strongly opposed borrowing (knowledge, customs, etc..)
from Christianity or other non-Muslim religions. In his text On the
Necessity of the Straight Path (kitab iqtida al-sirat al-mustaqim) he
preached that the beginning of Muslim life was the point at which ` A
perfect dissimilarity with the non-Muslims has been achieved.
In other words, Wahabism is nothing more than, as it is called in
evangelism, a ³Revival² of Islamic orthodoxy practiced as in the time
of Mohammad and his first three companions", using the same
interpretations of the historical Islamic interpreters which have been
approved by every Sunni Islamic authority.
You can challenge any Scholar to show you any Wahabi interpretation
that would differ from what is taught now at any Sunni institution,
starting by the most prominent Al Azhar University in Cairo.
Conclusion: Wahabism is the TRUE Islam.
According to a tacit agreement that sealed the power sharing in Saudi
Arabia between the founder of the dynasty Ebn Saud and Mohamed ebn
Abdel Wahab, the educational system has been in the grip of the Wahabi
religious authority.
Mr. Bush and his administration can talk about the reform progress of
the Saudi educational curriculum with all the optimism they want. As
long as the Wahabi Islam is the prerequisite cornerstone of that
curriculum, not only for the Saudi¹s consumption, but ex****ted all over
the world including in America¹s madrasas and mosques, you can rest
assured that we¹ll never run out of suicide bombers. What more proof do
we need than today¹s declarations from a high profile member of the
royal family and a former deputy Minister of education?
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